Housing News Digest
Housing News Digest
The Tenants' Union Housing News Digest compiles our pick of items from all the latest tenancy and housing media, sent once per week, on Thursdays.
Below is the Digest archive from November 2020 onwards. From time to time you will find additional items in the archive that did not make it into the weekly Digest email. Earlier archives are here, where you can also find additional digests by other organisations.
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Archive
The Hallway, Not Courtroom, Is Where Things Really Get Done At This Eviction Court
Laurel Wamsley (No paywall)At eviction court in Columbus, Ohio, much of the work happens in the hallway just outside the courtroom. That's where tenants find lawyers to represent them, cases are mediated, and deals are struck. ... [Municipal Court Administrative Judge Ted Barrows says] 'Landlords win when tenants don't show. Tenants who do come to court have much better odds due to resources right outside the courtroom. Tables staffed with legal aid attorneys, mediators, social workers and a financial assistance nonprofit line the hallway to help tenants try to stay in their homes or at least not end up homeless.' (NPR)
https://www.npr.org/2021/08/13/1027537471/the-hallway-not-courtr…
# International, Eviction, Tribunal NCAT, Coronavirus COVID-19, Homelessness.Landlords Hate Rent Control Because It’s Good for the Rest of Us
Brian J Sullivan (No paywall)In 2018, California’s Proposition 10 threw landlords across the country into a panic. If passed, the ballot measure would have paved the way for expanded rent control throughout the state. One leading landlord trade group called the ballot measure “nothing short of an existential threat to the multifamily [landlord] industry.” Worried about Prop 10’s reverberations in their own cities, landlords from Chicago, New York, and elsewhere raised over $70 million to defeat the ballot measure. The landlords ultimately prevailed — after outspending tenant advocates threefold. Why did the prospect of rent control in California strike such expensive fear into the hearts of landlords across the country? (Jacobin Magazine)
https://jacobinmag.com/2021/08/landlords-rent-control-housing-ma…
# Hot topic International, Rent, Campaigns and law reform, Housing market.Ministers must commit to 30-year social rent increases to tackle London’s housing crisis, report argues
James Wilmore Inside Housing (Paywall)From the United Kingdom ... The government must “immediately” introduce a 30-year commitment to increase social rents by 1% above the consumer price index (CPI) annually to help tackle London’s affordable housing crisis, a new report has argued. The 28-page report, published today by the G15 and the London Housing Directors’ Group – representing the capital’s councils – sets out a series of recommendations aimed at solving the “market failure” over housing need in the city. The report highlighted that the annual need for extra affordable housing in London is 7.6 times greater than supply, compared to 2.6 across the whole of England.
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/ministers-must-commit-to-30…
# International, Public and community housing, Affordable housing, Housing market.Wales sets new social housing rules for climate change goals
Nicholas Thomas (No paywall)New-build social homes will not be heated using fossil fuels from October, under fresh Welsh Government environmental rules. Plans to build 20,000 new social homes for rent over the next five years will also have to comply with carbon targets, and those properties will not be heated with fossil fuel-fired boilers or heating systems. Builders will also be encouraged to use timber in construction as a way of storing carbon, and will have to plan for the future reuse of materials should any of the social homes be knocked down. Storage space for recycling containers and food waste will also have to be factored into designs under the new rules, and the government hopes to have private developers in Wales on board by 2025. (South Wales Argus)
https://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/news/19518545.wales-sets-new-s…
# International, Public and community housing, Climate change, Housing market.The reasons behind our housing crisis are clear…if we care to look
Tim Williams The Fifth Estate (No paywall)We hear lots about the housing crisis in Australia. And the UK. And the US. We hear lots about what – apparently – each needs to do. That usually boils down to “liberalise the planning system even more” and “let the private sector build more homes”. What is missed is that, given the differences in systems and governance between all these countries, a) why are they all experiencing a “housing crisis” at the same time and b) why is it the same crisis of affordability everywhere, taking the forms of declining access to home-ownership and of stagnant or declining supplies of public housing? ... In Australia we over-incentivize residential development through cheap money and tax benefits for investors, meaning we deliberately encourage people to become second and third home owners, meaning those on low incomes cannot get into homeownership. That is to say, we are creating a nation of rentiers and also of renters, who are kept out of home ownership because the former is using its tax benefits, assets and cheap money to outbid them.
https://thefifthestate.com.au/columns/spinifex/the-reasons-behin…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Federal Government, Home ownership, Planning and development, State Government, Tax.Evicted, Despite a Federal Moratorium: ‘I Do Not Know What I Am Going to Do’
Neil MacFarquhar The New York Times (Paywall)Many local governments and courts were not sure how to apply the extension of the protections, and dockets in some places overflowed with evictions. If you face a paywall, try the link at: [https://usanewslab.com/us-news/evicted-despite-a-federal-moratorium-i-do-not-know-what-i-am-going-to-do/]
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/11/us/eviction-moratorium-vegas…
# International, Eviction, Rent, Tribunal NCAT, Coronavirus COVID-19, Local Government.High density, greenery-rich cities are possible: but there’s a catch
Poppy Johnston The Fifth Estate (No paywall)We don’t need to choose between urban infill and greenspace, says The Forever Project’s Chris Ferreira. Although, to avoid chopping down trees to make way for increased density, the director of the Western Australian-based cross disciplinary sustainable design company says we need to “unshackle” ourselves from two enduring beliefs: That our homes must be enormous, and that they must have space for several cars.
https://thefifthestate.com.au/innovation/residential-2/high-dens…
# Australia, Home, Housing market.Curlwaa Caravan Park owners $16 short of qualifying for COVID-19 assistance, before finding another way
Sarah Tomlinson and Emmie Dowling ABC (No paywall)This wasn't the dream that Ric and Margot Young had for their regional NSW caravan park when they took ownership five years ago. Since the Victorian border slammed shut and the COVID-19 breakout in Sydney worsened, the riverside park is eerily quiet. [Read on]
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-14/curlwaa-caravan-park-was-…
# NSW, Land lease communities, Coronavirus COVID-19, Renting culture.